Attachment for an earth-moving machine



July 16, 1968 1.. ASCHER, JR 3,393,014

ATTACHMENT FOR AN EARTH-MOVING MACHINE Filed April 6, 1966 2 Sheets-Shet 1 7 Fig INVENTQR \SQNHARD nscu k 31:-

BY (mu MAW A July16,1968 'LASCHE JR 3,393,014

ATTACHMENT FOR AN EARTH-MOVING MACHINE Filed April (3, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEN OR Leomymva scum-1 (Xv on MA TORWEYS United States Patent 3,393,014 ATTACHMENT FOR AN EARTH-MOVING MACHINE Leonhard Ascher, .lr., Treitschkestrasse 13, Nuremberg, Germany Filed Apr. 6, 1966, Ser. No. 540,767 Claims priority, application Germany, July 30, 1965,

4 Claims. (Cl. 299-40) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE There is disclosed an attachment for an implement carrier of an earth-moving machine. The attachment comprises a digging tooth attachable to the implement carrier and having a cutting edge including a slot extending normal to the cutting edge. A cutting wheel having a peripheral cutting edge is rotatably supported in the slot by means of a pin extending through the branches of the tooth as defined by the slot. The cutting edges of the tooth and the wheel are preferably in alignment.

This invention relates to earth-moving machines, and more particularly to working apparatus for road construction machines for the loosening of hard building ground.

In underground workings and road construction, the working of hard building ground, for example, the removal of stony or rocky subsoil or the breaking up of old road surfaces, meets with difliculties. For this purpose, for the most part, the customary machines for ground leveling, such as bucket loaders, power shovels or the like, are used which are provided with working members more or less in the form of sharp-edged teeth.

Furthermore, special attachable devices are known with one or more tearing teeth which are formed like barbs bent in the working direction. These tearing teeth are driven into the building ground by means of the weight of the machine or by hydraulic means and then drawn through the building ground by the movement of the machine. The building ground is then torn up so that it is in irregular pieces which can be taken away.

This type of working operation has some drawbacks. The machine has an increased power requirement in order to facilitate the penetration of the working teeth into the stony ground or the road surface. The wear of these teeth is considerable, due to their being driven into the ground. This heavy impact stress furthermore renders necessary a robust construction of the carriers of the mountings as well as the hydraulic means.

A further drawback consists in that the torn up building ground, according to the strength of the stone, is in completely irregular pieces. Thus the result may be, when undisturbed rock is worked, large stone pieces, or when road surfaces are broken up, slabs of large surface dimensions. Such unwieldy pieces often entail an imperfect utilization of loading space, or cannot be loaded at all and must be broken up on the spot.

If fairly accurate working measurements must be maintained, as, for example, are necessary in the partial repair of road surfaces or in the subsequent placing of sewers and cable channels or shafts in finished roads or the like, then it is almost impossible to work with a machine which is so uncontrollable that it may tear out large pieces and thus damage parts of the road surface not requiring to be repaired. The machine may also cause tearing out of the channel or shaft walls. T o prevent tearing out of the road edges beyond the prescribed measurement, it is customary to work the boundaries of the surfaces to be worked by hand by means of a pick or a compressed air drill with 3,393,014 Patented July 16, 1968 chisel or the like. Such additional manual work entails corresponding costs and expenditure of time.

These faults are obviated according to the invention by means of at least one rotatable cutting tool penetrating under pressure into the ground.

With the aid of the cutting tool according to the invention, grooves are pressed into the ground, whereby frequently at the same time the stone bordering the grooves cracks due to its brittleness. It is then an easy matter to take up and load the material already loosened or jutting out between the grooves, by means of a conventional bucket loader.

The cutting pressure can be produced with the aid of the weight of the machine, with the aid of the hydraulic means of the machine, or also by means of an increased dead weight of the implement carrier receiving the cutting tool. The cutting tool may therefore be used in conjunc tion with the usual types of drive for the auxiliary devices of building machines. Furthermore, special implement carriers are unnecessary, as the cutting tool can be mounted on the usual implement carriers.

In the preferred construction the cutting tool is formed as a wheel provided with a cutting edge. The wear of such a cutting wheel, when compared with the customary working teeth, is disproportionately smaller, as a considerably longer cutting edge is available, and breaking of the cutting edge due to the practically static stress of the same is largely prevented. Furthermore, due to the rotation of the cutting wheel, uniform wear on the whole periphery is assured.

A particularly advantageous construction is obtained when the cutting wheel is mounted in the working tooth of a device built onto the machine -for example, a scoop, a bucket or the like-and interchangeable therewith. Thereby the cutting edge of the wheel suitably connects with the working edge of the tooth. With the aid of this arrangement it is possible in one working operation to press grooves into the building ground and to loosen the stone between the grooves with the aid of the teeth and to take it up in the scoop.

Several cutting wheels may be arranged next to one another the spacing of which is adjustable on an implement carrier. This has the advantage that several parallel grooves can be cut in the building ground. The spacing of the cutting wheels depends primarily on the hardness of the building ground. With very hard and tough stone as small a spacing as possible is selected. The arrangement has the further advantage that when partial repair of road surfaces is to be made, for the subsequent digging of sewer or cable channels in road surfaces, the dimensions of the surface to be worked can be maintained by adjustment of the outer cutting wheels to a suitable distance. By the cutting of grooves on the surface boundaries, tearing out of the edges is no longer possible.

The invention further provides for the cutting tool to be formed as a roller provided with cutting members, whereby the cutting members are in one piece with the roller or may be shrunk as rings thereon. Such a cutting roller is suitable in particular for the breaking up of road surfaces requiring repair and is drawn over the surface to be worked in a manner similar to a smoothing roller. The roller is preferably made of solid material so that due to its Weight the penetration of the cutting member into the road surface is rendered possible. The spacing of the cutting members on the roller again depends substantially on the hardness of the building ground to be treated. The roller may of course also be formed hollow, but is then suitably connected to the hydraulic means of the building machine.

It is furthermore within the scope of the invention to provide the cutting edges of the cutting tool with a profile.

Further details, features and advantages of the invention follow from the following description of a few preferred embodiments, as well as from reference to the drawing.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a bucket loader with cutting wheels mounted in the teeth of the bucket;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a building machine with a tearing tooth inserted in an implement carrier and a cutting wheel mounted in the tearing tooth;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a bucket of a power shovel the teeth of which are equipped with cutting wheels;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the working tooth of a bucket or a scoop;

FIG. 5 is a side view of an implement shaft with a cutting wheel mounted thereon;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the implement shaft according to FIG. 5 wherein the cutting wheel is illustrated in section;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a cutting tool formed as a roller;

FIG. 8 is a section of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 shows an edge view of a cutting wheel; and

FIG. 10 shows a plan view of a modification of the cutting wheel.

As an example of an earth-moving machine in which the working apparatus according to the invention is used, a bucket loader is illustrated in FIG. 1. The bucket loader 1 has a bucket 3 which is raisable, lowerable and tiltable by means of a hydraulic apparatus indicated generally at 2 and which by the movement of the machine in the working direction loosens and takes up the ground to be moved.

The bucket 3 has on the front side a number of working or excavating teeth 4 which, as can be seen in particular from FIG. 4, are generally wedge-shaped and terminate in cutting edges 5. The blunt rear end of each tooth 4 is exchangeably secured on the bucket 3. Suitable mounting means are well known and need not be described more in detail.

The working tooth 4 has a lengthwise slot 6 starting at the cutting edge 5 and extending perpendicular to the same. A cutting wheel 8 having a cutting edge 9 is rotatably mounted in slot 6 by means of a bolt 7. The diameter of the cutting wheel 8 and the location of bolt 7 in respect of the depth of the slot are advantageously so selected that the cutting edge 9 of wheel 8 is aligned with the cutting edge 5 of the working tooth 4.

By this arrangement a T-shaped section results whereby the bars of the T are formed by the cutting edge of the tooth and the cutting edge of the wheel extending downwardly toward the rear.

In FIG. 2 a bulldozer 10 is shown diagrammatically which on a raisable and lowerable longitudinal traverse arm 11 mounts a cross bar formed by an implement or tool carrier 12. The implement carrier 12 supports, if required, several working devices arranged next to one another and exchangeably held on the upper side by mounting means indicated at 13.

In the emodiment illustrated, a crushing or cracking device 14 for the loosening and breaking up of rocky building ground or road surfaces is inserted in the implement carrier 12. The traveling or working direction of the machine is toward the right as seen in FIG. 2; that is, in the reversing direction of the machine. The device 14 consists essentially of a shaft 15 the lower part 16 of which is bent forward (as seen in the working direction) so that a kind of barb results. Tearing or digging teeth 17 are exchangeably mounted on this lower part of the shaft. Mounting means suitable for the purpose need not be described further, as they are well known.

In each of the exchangeable tearing teeth 17 a cutting wheel 18 is mounted on a bolt 19, the cutting edge being advantageously in line with the cutting edge of the tearing tooth. This type of mounting of the cutting wheel 4 18 is in principle the same as that of the cutting wheel 8 (see FIG. 4).

FIG. 3 shows a bucket 20 which is connected via bolts 21 and bars 22 to the arm of an excavator, not shown. Furthermore, a hydraulic means, also not shown, acts on the bucket 20 for lifting, lowering and pivoting the same. A lever or arm 23 to effect pivotal movement of the bucket is linked to the rear end thereof.

The bucket comprises a casing 24 forming an operating space 25. Several excavating teeth 26 are exchangeably secured to the front casing edge. Cutting wheel 27 similar to the cutting wheels 8 of the scoop loader 1 are rotatably mounted on teeth 26 by bolts 28.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show an auxiliary device 30 detachabl secured, in a manner similar to the crushing device 14 shown in FIG. 2, to a raisable and lowerable implement carrier 31. The device comprises a bar 32 and a holder 34 secured to the bar by screw bolts 33. The holder is formed by two bearing plates 35 arranged spaced apart from one another. The plates are bored below their middles to receive a bolt 36 threaded at its ends. The bolt 36 serves as an axle for a cutting wheel 37 placed thereon with clearance and clamped on both sides, for example, by crown nuts 38 secured by cotter pins if necessary.

The cutting wheel 37 has a cross section decreasing in thickness slowly from the hub to the cutting edge so that the wheel is capable of sustaining the stresses to which it is operationally subjected.

The construction of the auxiliary device 30, the mounting of the shaft 32 on the implement carrier 31 and the bearingof the cutting wheel 37 can, of course,-be changed in various respects, depending upon the type of machine, the construction of the implement carrier, the type of the stresses, etc. The exemplified embodiment represents a construction which has proved to be advantageous up till now in practice.

To facilitate the cutting or pressing of several parallel grooves into the subsoil to be worked, several cutting wheels are arranged next to one another. These may be mounted on the axle of an individual auxiliary device having a construction similar to FIGS. 5 and 6, but with a longer axle, or several auxiliary devices may be mounted next to one another in an implement carrier.

Such arrangements are advantageous in ditch construction or in the partial repair of roads. As already mentioned, two outer wheels are then arranged at such a distance from one another that they border the road area to be worked by cutting in grooves, thereby preventing a tearing out of the ground beyond this area.

In FIGS. 7 and 8 a cutting device 40 is shown which consists essentially of a roller 41, cutting member 42 thereon and two supporting arms 43 for suspension of the device on a construction machine.

The roller 41 is rotatably mounted on bolts 44 fixedly connected to the supporting arms 43. The cutting members 42, which in the illustrated embodiment are formed as cutting rings, may be in one piece with the roller or shrunk on the same or secured on the roller by fastening means acting in an equivalent manner.

The roller 41 advantageously is solid so that due to its own weight, it imparts to the cutting members the necessary pressure upon the ground to be worked upon; With very hard stone it is preferable to utilize the existing or special hydraulic means of the machine to act upon the roller, which in such case may be made hollow.

The width of the roller and the spacing of the cutting members depend primarily on the working width, but the choice of a narrow spacing of the cutting rings may also be advantageous with very hard stone.

If finely broken up material is desired and a machine is not available for loading such material, but loading must be manually effected by shovels, or if the material is to be used for other purposes, then it is advisable'to provide the roller with "teeth closely distributed on its periphery.

The cutting edge of the cutting wheels or rings may be fiat, or may be triangular as shown in FIG. 8.

The profile of the wheels or rings may also extend outwardly almost radially, as shown for cutting wheel 50 (FIG. similar to a circular saw blade, or the cutting edge may be profiled in the peripheral direction, as illustrated by a cutter wheel 15, for example, which has the shape of a milled wheel (FIG. 9). The profile is selected according to the stress, the strength of the material and the like.

The rotation of the cutting device is in all embodiments obtained by its pressure on the ground to be worked and the simultaneous movement of the machine. The cutting or pressing of the cutting tool into the ground is etfected, as already mentioned, by the weight of the machine, the existing or special hydraulic means of the machine, or by the dead weight of the auxiliary device coupled to the machine.

The material for the cutting members depends on the strength of the stone or other material to be worked on, but since in spite of the rolling movement of the cutting members, impact stresses cannot be excluded, a forged tough steel, such as a nickel alloy steel, the surface of which if necessary may be hardened, for example, by tempering, is advisable.

With a cutting wheel mounted in a working tooth, it is advantageous to make the cutting wheel from a softer steel than the working tooth, as the wheel, due to its longer cutting edge and due to its more uniform wear, dependent on the rotation, wears less rapidly than the tooth. Due to the slot made in the tooth and the resulting weakening of the material, the tooth is preferably given a width greater than the width usually given such teeth, or the tooth may have a correspondingly thickened cross section.

A cutting tool according to the invention permits a so-called tandem operation of the machine. For this purpose, a cutting tool is mounted on one side of the machine, while on the other side a shovel, for example, is mounted so that in one direction of travel, grooves are pressed into the ground and in the opposite direction loosened stone can be taken up by the shovel.

The invention is of course not limited to the emb0diments described and illustrated, but numerous variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, the cross-sectional shape and the profile of the cutting members, the type of bearing and mounting of the same, as well as the construction of the auxiliary devices associated with the cutting tools, can be readily adapted to the actual working conditions and the available auxiliary means.

What is claimed is:

1. An attachment for an implement carrier of an earthmoving machine, said attachment comprising in combination:

a digging tooth fixedly attachable to the implement carrier, said tooth having at one end a cutting edge including a slot extending normal to said cutting edge;

a cutting wheel having a peripheral cutting edge; and

a mounting pin extending crosswise through the branches of the tooth as defined by said slot and rotatably supporting said wheel within said slot.

2. The attachment according to claim 1 wherein the cutting edge of the cutting wheel is substantially aligned with the cutting edge of the tooth.

3. The attachment according to claim 1 wherein said cutting wheel has a profiled peripheral edge.

4. The attachment according to claim 3 wherein said cutting wheel has a wavy peripheral outline.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,831,116 11/1931 Huntley 94-50 2,804,294 8/1957 Meagher 299 2,890,872 6/1959 Hall 29940 2,935,308 5/1960 Zorn 29986 FOREIGN PATENTS 466,135 9/ 1928 Germany. 521,979 8/ 1929 Germany.

ERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner. 

